Hungary is the better rival at the moment - they showed it in the 3rd round of European Championship qualifiers, although the "lions" wanted to restore their old glory in duels with big rivals.
The Montenegrin handball players suffered their first defeat in the 3rd round of the European Championship qualifiers - the score was 29:29 in the M:tel "Morača" hall.
Mistakes and missed shots at the moments when the rival was approaching cost the "lions".
"We were not consistent, there were mistakes throughout the game, and we also had a lot of missed shots. But EHF weeks are specific and there is not enough time to pay attention to everything. I congratulate the players, they worked well and were in the game until the end," said coach Didijed Dinar at a press conference.
Of course, there were good things too.
"We showed some courage, we chased the result and we managed to come back somewhat. There were positives, and one of them was the rotation and the fact that almost all players got a chance," added Dinar.
DON'T MISS IT
The legendary Frenchman led Montenegro for the first time in our largest stadium, recorded his first defeat on the bench of the "Lions", and he also had a message for the fans.
"The atmosphere was fantastic, the fans were our eighth player and that's one of the reasons we didn't give up."
Hungary had one of the best pivots on the planet, Bence Banhidi, but Miklos Rosta was also phenomenal with nine goals.
"We were also missing a lot of players, we were in a bigger deficit," Dinar emphasized.
How much did Radojica Čepić's sending off in the 37th minute affect the game, considering that he had been "pulling" the national team until then?
"He is definitely a very important player for us and his red card changed a lot of things."
What are the "Lions" missing right now for big teams to start falling to "Morača" again?
"It's difficult, but it doesn't mean that we didn't have a chance to surprise today and get a draw," concluded Dinar.
Bonus video:
